Let organically grown food be included in school feeding programme-Prof. Olowe

The President, Association of Organic agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria (NOAN) Prof. Victor Olowe has advocated for the inclusion of organically grown food to be injected in the Federal Government (FG) home school feeding programme for the purpose of healthy living of our children. He made this statement at a national roundtable discussion on organic held in Abuja yesterday.

Prof. Olowe said that it would not be enough giving children in schools edible food, but rather to give them organically grown foods with their production farms being established even in those schools for best agronomics training of the pupils at that tender age as regards organic farming.

He said by so doing the government would have been promoting healthy living through organically grown  foods with an environment free of toxic and chemicals that are causing kidney and cancer health problems for many who had died in the process.

NOAN president pointed that there is the need for training of children in the production of crops in organic ways right from the elementary schools to secondary and universities saying this is the only way the practice can be well adapted in our country as the University of Agriculture; Abeokuta has started this with its four hundred level students.

He wants National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to also mainstream organic agricultural education into its current curricular for broad coverage in colleges asking that Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) should increase budget for organic farming and agriculture in Nigeria saying also there is need for media capacity building for the better understanding and reporting of the sector.